Lord Warner: The Government value their strong and constructive relationship with Macmillan Cancer Support and will of course consider the recommendations in its report Cancer Costs—The Hidden Price of Getting Treatment.
	However, financial assistance is already available to patients through the hospital travel costs scheme and the National Health Service low-income scheme.
	Under the Department of Health's income generation rules, NHS trusts are allowed to charge for car-parking and are advised to assess the needs of all users of the hospital, including patients, visitors, staff, emergency vehicles and others, when operating car-parking schemes. Trusts are allowed to charge because the provision of car-parking facilities incurs a range of maintenance, security and staffing costs. If no charges were made, trusts would have to find these costs from elsewhere. Each trust is responsible for setting its own charges, but any profits must be used to improve health services.

Baroness Byford: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Whether the investigative phase of the preparation for a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs consultation on further access to the United Kingdom coastline has covered any of the issues encountered in the roll-out of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000; if so, what aspects have been examined; and what incidence statistics compiled.

Lord Rooker: My department has funded the Energy Saving Trust since 1992, to promote the sustainable and efficient use of energy in the household sector. Our grant for the current financial year is £27 million. The trust is an independent, private company that plays an important role in helping the Government to meet their climate change targets. The trust runs a number of programmes to promote energy saving in the home, including television advertisements, a network of 52 local advice centres and the endorsement of energy-saving products. The trust also provides information about grants and offers that are available to help implement energy-saving measures in homes. More information is available from the Energy Saving Trust website at www.est.org.uk/myhome/.
	We need to raise levels of public understanding and change attitudes to climate change as a central part of the wider climate change programme. This is the focus for our climate change communication initiative, which was launched in December last year.
	Defra has made funding of £12 million available for the whole initiative and, so far, £4.8 million has been allocated to 53 Climate Challenge Fund projects. These projects, from across England, will form part of an innovative new approach aimed at raising awareness at regional and local level of the urgent need to tackle climate change.
	Under the climate change communications initiative the Government are providing additional support, including guidance for communicators, a website (www.climatechallenge.gov.uk), and free-to-use resources such as short film and radio advertisements.
	As a further element of the initiative, earlier this year we ran a competition to choose nine young climate change champions, each from a different region of England. The winners, who were chosen in May, will spend a year spreading the word to their region about climate change and the role that young people can have in tackling it.

Lord Drayson: At the end of September 2005, some 2,920 ex-service men who served in the first Gulf conflict were in receipt of a war disablement pension. Accurate information on the number and identities of those veterans who claimed Gulf War syndrome could be obtained only by detailed examination of individual cases.

Lord Dykes: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What is their response to the recent increase in insurgent activities against uniformed members of the coalition units in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lord Drayson: We continuously monitor and assess the threat posed to our troops by insurgent activity in Afghanistan and Iraq, and this forms an integral part of our military planning. While it would not be appropriate to comment in detail on our assessment of, or response to, threats posed to our troops, the Government will ensure commanders have an appropriately robust force with which to conduct operations, equipped with a range of support equipment. Tactics, techniques and procedures appropriate for the operational task and environment are also in place and adjusted as required.

Lord Triesman: Administrative detainees are held in both Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and Israel Prisons Service (IPS) facilities. According to figures provided by the IDF to Israeli non-governmental organisations, the IDF was holding, as of 3 January 2006, 741 Palestinians in administrative detention. The IPS told our embassy in Tel Aviv that, as of May 2006, 617 administrative detainees were being held in IPS facilities.
	According to the IPS, 6,223 security prisoners (those convicted by Israeli courts of terrorism-related crimes) were being held in IPS facilities in May 2006. A further 1,656 were being held awaiting trial. According to the IPS, security detainees are allowed family visits and are given medical and dental care. The International Committee of the Red Cross regularly visits IPS facilities and makes recommendations on conditions inside Israeli prisons to the Israeli authorities.
	We remain concerned by Israel's policy of administrative detention, particularly that of minors. We regularly raise our concerns with the IPS. We last raised the issue of Palestinian prisoners with the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs on 15 June, and our ambassador in Tel Aviv last raised this with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's special adviser on 22 March.

Lord Dykes: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	What representations they have made to the Government of Israel regarding their military response to the kidnapping of one Israel Defense Forces soldier.

Lord Triesman: At the G8 Foreign Ministers meeting in Moscow on 29 June, my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary discussed the current situation in Gaza with her US counterpart. The UK is indirectly a member of the quartet (EU, US, UN and Russia) and all quartet members have individually urged Israel to act with restraint. Our ambassador in Tel Aviv and Consul General in Jerusalem stay in regular contact with their US counterparts.

Lord Warner: We agree that stepped improvements in access to evidence-based psychological therapies should be available. Our programme, Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), which we announced in May, is a key part of the Government's mental health programme to address this. The IAPT programme will define the best way to achieve these improvements over the next five to 10 years.
	We have recently set up psychological therapy demonstration sites in Doncaster and Newham, to help test the extent to which increasing access to these therapies improves well-being, reduces worklessness and the number of people claiming incapacity benefit, and provides greater choices in treatment and core options for people with these conditions. The demonstration sites will help to clarify the number of staff, the skills set and the training requirements needed to improve access to psychological therapies.
	Evidence from the demonstration sites will be supplemented by a national network of smaller, local IAPT projects and 20 national primary care mental health collaborative sites.

Earl Howe: asked Her Majesty's Government:
	Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Warner on 6 March (WA 115), when the negotiations between NHS Employers and the British Medical Association's General Practitioners Committee for the general medical services contract for 2007—08 onwards will commence; and whether, as in the case of the general medical services contract for 2006—07, there will be an opportunity for other stakeholders to submit suggestions to the quality and outcomes framework of the contract.

Lord Warner: The September 2005 workforce census showed that there were 2,887 (1,913 full-time equivalent) qualified nurses working in the school nursing service in England, an increase of 478 (19.8 per cent) since 2004. Of these, 943 (665 full-time equivalent) have a post-registration school nursing qualification, an increase of 87 (10 per cent) since 2004.
	The Department of Health, along with the Department for Education and Skills, is continuing to ensure that the profile of school nurses remains high nationally. In partnership, the departments have published Looking for a school nurse? and a school nurse practice development resource pack, which will support the expansion and development of the school nursing service.
	Ministers and the Chief Nursing Officer continue to communicate the importance of school nurses to the National Health Service, and work with professional bodies to promote their modern role. Managers will need to develop their workforce to support their local school nursing services in ways best suited to meet the needs of their community.

Lord Bassam of Brighton: The Prime Minister's Office is part of the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet Office is fully committed to the carbon offsetting of government air travel initiative and is participating in the Government Carbon Offsetting Fund (GCOF). The GCOF aims to fulfil the Prime Minister's commitment to carbon offset all official air travel in central Government and will be available for all central government departments to offset emissions from official air travel in a simple and cost-effective manner, as well as ensuring high environmental integrity.
	Flights by the Prime Minister have been offset since 1 April 2005.

Baroness Andrews: Local authorities already have powers under Section 32 of the Housing Act 1985 to dispose of properties they have had developed with a discount to priority purchasers. They may also dispose of land to registered social landlords for the development of affordable housing.
	Our new HomeBuy scheme will expand the opportunity for home ownership to over 100,000 households by 2010, including through the First-Time Buyers Initiative, which uses public sector land. The Shared Equity Task Force has been established to examine further ways to increase the number of people able to benefit from shared equity products and the case for government intervention. As part of its work, the Shared Equity Task Force will be evaluating the costs and benefits of different models for delivering affordable housing, including the use of public sector land. The task force is due to report at the end of 2006 to inform the Comprehensive Spending Review decisions in summer 2007.